steve desio

About

The CFL has become a major topic of interest to me. I have been following Commissioner Cohon's Plan as he has more than just brought stability to the CFL but has created a base where the franchises have become profitable again. Ottawa will be coming back in 2014 the right way with a strong ownership group and an expansion plan that will be able to make them competitive right away. It was unfortunate that a stadium issue has held up the return of Ottawa for four years.
Team ten in the CFL should be the next priority on the agenda. Although a lot of work has been pu towards a team in the Atlantic Region the uncertainty of fan support and the stadium issue seems to place them out of short term expansion.
With the TV deal with TSN a year before Cohon became commissioner has helped to open the game to a new CFL fan base. With the Inclusion of RDS sister station and French Sports Network televising all Alouette games the Francophone population in Quebec has risen 94% and continues to grow.
Quebec City has already proven to have a huge fan base for football making the 7th largest metropolitan area the logical choice for team 10. With everything that has been learned in the last 6 seasons about temporary stadiums at a reasonable cost, Synergy model for ownerships started by Jeff hunt in Ottawa and now the Calgary Flames taking Majority ownership of the Stampeders, The synergy model takes an organizations resources such as front office personnel and sponsorships already in place and adding a football division as part of their sports enterprises making adding a team cost efficient for an ownership group.
I am currently seeking a career change on a full of part time basis and after much research football in Canada seems to have the potential for a lot of growth, particularly in the province of Quebec and the Francophone population of 5.8 million along with neighboring 1.3 million in Ontario and 350,000 in the Atlantic Region including the predominantly Francophone community of Moncton. Which brings me to my next business venture for the Province of Quebec and connected Ottawa-Gatineau along with neighboring Atlantic Region primarily New Brunswick which has 250,000 Francophones living there.
The time to strike is now for pro football in the Francophone Province of Quebec and eastern Canada neighboring cities and regions. There is a whole in pro football in North America ever since the ARENA FOOTBALL LEAGUE locked out pro Union players in 2009 and came back under new management as a semi pro team. Expansion into the CFL will be a good future investment as there are room for three teams that would present new fan bases; Atlantic Region, Quebec City, and London City.
The Francophone Community in Quebec and nearby metropolitan areas is hott right now think that someone needs to take advantage of the Hott presence of football among the Quebec Francophone Community and players. With the struggles of building stadiums a solution would be to take the place of the Arena Football League starting in Feb.
Three cities in and part of Quebec have the arenas, fans, and ownwership groups to have a great start. Ottawa-gatineau region has an NHL arena capacity of near 20,000 and an OHL arena of capacity near 10,000. Montreal has the same, As well as Quebec city which would be in the best shape with already 15,000 seat colisee pepsi for the junior A remparts and a new arena coming. Also tons of local talent coming from Laval would create a great fan base. It would not have to build a stadium and it would not compete with Laval for fans but rather give Laval players pro football jobs.
Sherbrooke also has two colleges one anglo and one francophone and a new arena coming. Moncton has a 6,000 seat arena for hockey that is also close by.
The reason I chose these areas and quebec is the suer speed of popularity of football among the francophones and three top 10 schools to draw talent from along with a TV Network RDS french sports network based in Montreal undoubtedly would be very interested in a TV deal as the 8 Million francophones in quebec and nearby in Ontario and new brunswick would b watching for sure.
I have been researching the possibilities of placing teams in these and other areas in and near Quebec. where Arenas are currently standing or being built..
The city of Montcon may not have the fanbase or the money to bring Stade de Montcon up to CFL code but would have a facility in Moncton Coliseum which holds 6,500 would be on the fringe of playing ome to an pro arena football league team in a Quebec League.
Sherbrooke, also is going to be home to the CHL's newest Junior team. Although the seating of 5,000 may be on the low end plans to refurbish the arena to include 26 corporate suites are in the works.
5 teams all in or near quebec would make travel costs efficient. Three cities also have Frncophone University Football teams in the city in which to draw the best young Francophone talent; Montreal, Quebec City Laval, and Sherbrooke.
A TV deal with RDS and TSN would most likely be likely to be accomplished as RDS know the popularity of the Francophone fans to support their local french talent. TSN would most likely be able to find english Boadcast time on TSN2.
I am currently working up a proposal to present hopefully to some one who would be interested. Molson Breweries are at the top of the list.

Thanks Greg. The CFL has become a very interesting topic for me. I have been doing some serious research on many different topics. The Article I will be sending in will be about the Riders signing of Colt Brennan and Drew Willy.